A painful infection that mostly affects women is too often dismissed as a “female problem”.
Every second woman suffers from a urinary tract infection (UTI) and it is the second most common infection worldwide.
Among those affected is Hannah Hanratty, 36, who endured months of agony despite multiple negative tests.
But a scientist in Wales has now developed a device to improve testing and said the current system is “50 years out of date”.
During her pregnancy, Ms Hanratty, from Swansea, experienced “razor sharp burning pain” when urinating. It soon developed into a constant pain.
Tests for a urinary tract infection were repeatedly negative, leading her to worry that something was wrong with her unborn baby.
“I was in so much pain at the end — I was just trying to get through every day,” she said.
At 37 weeks, she was arranged to have her daughter early so doctors could do more tests without harming the baby.
Two weeks after giving birth, she needed antibiotics after a routine procedure and said the pain went away immediately.
“It was a urinary tract infection all along that just wasn’t detected by the tests,” she said.
As a Pelvic Health Physiotherapist working with the Department of Urogynaecology, Swansea Bay University Board of Health, Ms Hanratty’s experience has fueled her passion for improving outcomes for her own patients.
“It’s really affecting their mental health and a lot of them can have suicidal thoughts, so it has to be taken really seriously,” she said.
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dr Emma Hayhurst, Lecturer in Molecular Biology at the University of South Wales, agreed.
“Everyone recognizes that the current testing regime is outdated,” she said.
“She [UTIs] affects one in two women, and yet the diagnostics we use for them are 50 years out of date.”
At the moment, a UTI patient may be asked to provide a urine sample, which will be sent for analysis, with the tests coming back in two to three days.
“It’s not good enough, we have to do it faster,” said Dr. Hayhurst and stated that the device she is working on would reduce this.
“Within 30 minutes, the doctor can tell which bacteria are causing the UTI and whether there is a UTI at all.”
Urinary tract infections are one of the most common types of infection, affecting more than 92 million people worldwide, according to an NHS report.
dr Hayhurst has received a £50,000 Women in Innovation Award to further her work but also in recognition of her position as a female role model in science, technology, engineering and medicine – or STEM subjects as they are also known.
“We should listen to women who tell us this is a problem in their lives, but we know many feel they are being let go,” she said.
“We’ve suffered from a lack of strong female representation at senior levels in research and in business, and it’s definitely having an impact.
“You tend to innovate in areas that you understand and that interest you, so if we keep innovating with the same people, we’ll always find the same solutions.”
Welsh Health Secretary Eluned Morgan is due to publish a quality statement on women’s health in the summer and has announced that every health authority will receive funding for an endometriosis nurse.
“As the first health minister in a long time, I feel particularly responsible that we look at women’s health in much more detail,” she said.
“There are clearly some gaps, certainly in terms of research, but also in terms of where people focus their efforts and investments.
“Often women aren’t heard the way men are, and we really need to make sure we’re balancing that unconscious bias.”
UTIs are usually caused by bacteria, most commonly from a person’s own intestines, entering the urinary tract through the urethra, the tube that carries urine out of the body.
Women have a shorter urethra than men, meaning bacteria are more likely to reach the bladder or kidneys and cause infection.
Symptoms of a UTI include a burning sensation when urinating and feeling like you need to urinate frequently, fever, chills, and pain.
Around 50% of women in the UK get a UTI and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) estimates that by the age of 24 almost a third of women have had at least one episode of cystitis.
NICE, which provides national guidance and advice on how to improve health and social care, also said up to 30% of women have a UTI recurrence. It’s much less common in men, which NICE says is due to the shorter urethra in women.
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